Irma Aftermath (aka: Why I Got A New Car)

As a lot of you probably know by now, I recently purchased a new car!!

If it seems like this kind of came out of nowhere…that’s because it did. This is not a purchase I was intending or planning to make and frankly, not one that I wanted to make. But I guess that’s just how life works sometimes. Either way, my life has been a little stressful for the past few weeks (which is also why I’ve been so MIA here and on instagram) and I wanted to write out a brief post about everything!

We’ll rewind a bit back to a few weeks ago, when Hurricane Irma hit the central Florida area. If you read my post about it from right after it happened, you may remember that I briefly mentioned both Chris and I had discovered some minor damage to our cars following the storm. Basically – I had a few inches of water on the floor in my backseat. I filed a claim with my insurance, and they sent out someone to inspect the damage.

Unfortunately, my car – my beautiful Honda Fit I affectionately named Fifi, the first car I had ever purchased, that I loved so dearly – was determined upon inspection to be a total loss.

The instagram post I put up when I first got Fifi ;(

AKA – she was totaled. I was honestly so sad, I didn’t want to believe it. I loved that car SO much and it was so perfect for me. I only owned her for 2 years – she didn’t deserve this demise. But unfortunately with the insurance claiming Fifi as a total loss, I only had a few options – I could pay out of pocket to get the upholstery cleaned/replaced to get out the musty smell, and possibly pay even more to fix other problems down the road…or I could trade her in and get a new car.

Some of Fifi’s flooding…you can see there was literally standing water just chillin there in my backseat

I weighed the pros and cons and ultimately made the difficult decision to turn my car over to my insurance. I signed the papers and a tow truck came to pick her up this week. I was heartbroken – I loved that car so much.

Fifi on her last day (with her murderer the tow truck waiting in the background)

In the meantime, I had to find another way to get around, so I had a rental car until I was able to purchase a new car. Last week, I went and picked up my rental – a spiffy Nissan Sentra with keyless entry (I felt extremely fancy in this car ok). But now the pressure was on at this point. I had the car for a week which meant I had a week to get a loan and find and purchase a new car.

Chris and I went to a bunch of dealerships to look at cars in pretty much all our off time. First I was looking for a new Fit since I loved Fifi so much, but it was quickly becoming obvious that there weren’t many to choose from that would be in my price range and in good condition. I test drove a LOT of cars and talked to so many dealers that I couldn’t even remember all of them now. At one point we found a car that was perfect – a 2013 Fit with low miles, Honda certified and a great price – but it sold literally THE DAY that we were going to go in and purchase it. At another dealer, I found a perfect little Fit for a decent price, but the salesman talked exclusively to Chris and wouldn’t look at me the entire time. I walked out of that sale because there was no way I was going to give my money to someone so sexist that they only made eye contact with my fiancé. I was beginning to feel desperate and like I would never find something I liked.

So I expanded my search to include other small-ish cars. And that’s when we stumbled upon a used 2014 Corolla that was Toyota certified with low miles and a good price. We went to check it out, test drove it and really liked it, but the price was just a bit too high as I hadn’t received my insurance payout yet, and I was still low key holding out for another Fit. We left but kept it in mind.

Wellllll after a few days I found myself still thinking about that Corolla, and my insurance payout came through and was more than I expected. I decided that we would go back and look again, and if they still had the car then it was meant to be and I would get it.

And I guess it was meant to be!! Today I ended up purchasing the car and I am SO happy with my decision. It’s in great condition and has a lot of cool features that I’ve never had in a car before (I feel like it’s weird to be excited about a back up camera but I’ve never had one ok). I still am very sad about my old Fifi, but I hope I will love this car just as much and perhaps it will be better for me in the long run. Obviously it was not an expense I was expecting so I’ve been really stressed about the whole thing, but I’m so glad it’s all taken care of now.

So that’s the story of how I got a new car! I apologize that this is a really wordy and probably boring post but hey…this blog is for me as much as it for anyone else 🙂 and I feel like getting a new car is a pretty big/important thing in anyone’s life so of course I wanted to document it!

That’s all for today and hopefully the last of my car drama for a while! let me know if you have any name suggestions for my new car 🙂